Microsoft sold software and training to the armed forces of Tunisia's repressive former regime six years ago, a leaked WikiLeaks cable has revealed. The deal alarmed even the normally flag-waving trade patriots in the US government, according to the cable.
The leaked cable, sent from the US embassy in Tunis in 2006, reports …

COMMENTS

You can always wash off the blood

I dunno what upsets me more...

The fact that Microsoft tries to sell software to the Tunisian regime which the US government doesn't like, or that same US government allowing his agencies to deliver terrorist -suspects- to Libia in order to try and get confessions out of them. A country which had officially been labeled as 'evil' as well..

Do as we say, not as we do or are we back to the simplified "the ends justifies the means" ?

Good on Microsoft!

MS did more than 'train'

Wikileaks confirms the suspicions of assistance for the monitoring of Tunisian citizens http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fhimt.com%2F2011%2F09%2F04%2Fmicrosoft-et-ben-ali-wikileaks-confirme-les-soupcons-d%25E2%2580%2599une-aide-pour-la-surveillance-des-citoyens-tunisiens%2F

They have not really changed from the 90's and the famous Halloween files

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Documents

Anyone who has ever paid for an Xbox, Windows, office, etc is helping this absolute shite of an unethical company (and possibly funding the legal attack against Linux (which benefits mankind in general by advancing technology for all))

Unfortunately due to the strength of their illegal monopoly tax payers fund Microsoft (as schools, police, etc use Microsoft products (when they is absolutely no need))

That's the State Dept's responsibility, ultimately.

While it would be nice, I actually don't expect all US-based businesses that do business internationally to have comprehensive tracking of the complete and detailed political picture in every single area they seek to do business in.

If the US government has a problem with US-based businesses doing business in certain countries, it's the job of the US State Department to make that clear and to embargo those countries. I would expect that Microsoft, as well as any other legitimate business, would honor those embargos. (Despite the various evils that Microsoft can be accused of, I have seen no evidence so far that they have a habit of flouting those sorts of rules. Unlike some companies like Google - ie with the recently-revealed "Canadian Pharmacy" thing)

After all, if US.gov were so puritannical about not doing business with "impure regimes", then one would not be able to list dozens of them that the USA gladly supports on a daily basis for political expediency purposes. (Hellooooo China) Expecting businesses to second-guess who is on the "in-list" or "out-list" on a daily basis is absurd, given the hypocritical nature of such lists in the first place.